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MILLIONS of Britons face missing out on the full “flatrate” state pension, amid claims it was “mis-sold”.

Experts fear older people will be forced to work longer or raid their savings to pay extra national insurance contributions in order to qualify for the top rate under the complicated new scheme introduced last April.

The warning comes after nearly two-thirds of retiring workers failed to receive the full £155.65 a week because they did not qualify under the new rules.

Just 63,440 of 153,990 retirees received the top rate in the five months after the new system came in last April, official figures show.

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George Osbourne introduced changes to the state pension when chancellor of the exchequer.

Despite being billed as simpler than the older state pension, experts have slammed the flat-rate system as “still riddled” with the same complexities.
Hardest hit are workers who paid less national insurance to boost a private pension through “contracting out” schemes.

Former pensions minister Baroness Ros Altmann last night hit out at the damning statistics.

She said: “What the Government could and should have done is try to help people understand the process of contracting out, which meant you pay less national insurance in order to build up some of your state pension in a private scheme.